Thanks for this article, Stitcher. I hope it's appearance in the NYT will encourage many doctors to change their methods of presenting this info.

The worst example of it that I know of was when my father was hospitalized for a urological problem. The day before surgery his urologist met with the family in my father's room and explained all the basic options but required no signatures then.

At 10 pm that night, an intern came and presented the consent form and discussed more serious consequences and possibly more drastic surgery. He then required my legally blind father to sign the consent. It was certainly NOT informed nor was it signed with consent and my father was very upset with the lack of competent communication on the eve of his surgery.